Addi Marr
Title and the author:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is what I read for this project. I chose this book because when I was looking for a book to read for the project, my sister had suggested that I read Uglies. She told me that she enjoyed it a lot and since my sister and I share similar interests, I thought I would most likely enjoy it too. I read the summary on the back of the book and immediately wanted to pick up the book and start reading. I am not the biggest fan of reading, but unlike other books, I read Uglies very quickly. I did not want to set it down until I was finished read the entire book.
Genre:
Uglies is in the genre of young adult fiction, romance, and science fiction. The genre young adult fiction fits my book well because it is about a girl, Tally, who is fifteen, about to turn sixteen, and is growing up in a futuristic version of America. It shows young adults what it would be like to grow up in a world like to grow up in a world like Tally’s. The genre science fiction fits Uglies well because in Tally’s world because Scott Westerfeld describes how America’s government and society could be like in the future. Also, in Uglies, there is an extreme amount of plastic surgery done to a person once they turn the age of sixteen. The city hospitals and other organizations are constantly trying to find new cures for people when they are being operated on because some people die during the operation. They are also trying to find new ideas to make people more beautiful to modernize their process. The genre romance fits Uglies, also. Tally and David start to fall in love with each other not long after Tally comes to The Smoke. Before, Shay and David were going out. As soon as Tally arrived, David stopped liking Shay and fell for Tally. When David found out that Tally had been a spy when she first came to The Smoke, he was heartbroken.
Summary:
Uglies is about a girl, Tally, who is growing up in a futuristic world of America where their society is based on beauty. In this world, between the ages of twelve and sixteen you are considered Uglies. You live in Uglyville and you are brainwashed into believing that you are ugly, until you turn the age of sixteen and you get plastic surgery and turn into a Pretty. When you become a Pretty, you are moved into a new community called New Pretty Town for the next couple of years. All you do in that community is party. Tally is about to turn sixteen when she meets this girl, Shay. After hanging out for a little while, Tally and Shay find out that their sixteenth birthdays are on the same day. About a week before their birthday, Shay decides to rebel against the city and runaway to stay ugly and live with a secret city, The Smoke, in the wild where everyone stays ugly. Shay tries to pursuade Tally into coming with her, but Tally decides to stay, so Shay leaves directions in a code that only Tally will understand. When Tally's birthday finally comes, instead of getting the plastic surgery, she is sent to Special Circumstances. Special Circumstances is a group of Middle Pretties who make sure everything is under control in the city. They leave Tally with a choice to either go find Shay or she will have to stay ugly her whole life.
Characters:
Tally Youngblood, also known as Squint, begins the story barely rebellious and quite a bit selfish. Her purpose to go to The Smoke, in the beginning, was just so she could turn pretty. She was going to lie and betray a close friend and ruin homes for many people. “The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.” As the story goes on, she becomes very selfless and very rebellious against her city. Living in The Smoke for a few weeks, she finds out the true secrets about her city. They don't just make your face different, they make your brain different too. She decides to stay in The Smoke. "Every day seemed to change the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacular in a completely new way. Nature, at least, didn’t need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.” Special Circumstances somehow finds The Smoke and captures most of The Smokies, the people who lived in The Smoke. Tally and David, Tally's boyfriend, escape Special Circumstances. Later, they go back and rescue as many of The Smokies that they can. Shay, Tally's friend, has already been operated on and is now a Pretty. They find a cure to fix Shay's brain, so it will go back to normal. Shay will not take the pill, so Tally decides to turn herself in and become a Pretty and then one of the Smokies will rescue her and she will take the pill to find out if it works or not.
Shay, also known as Skinny, is very rebellious. "I can't imagine anything worse than required to have fun." She does not want to become Pretty, she thinks she is fine the way she looks now and she does not like the way the government works. “We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.” She runs away a week before her birthday and tries to convince Tally to come with her. When Tally says no, Shay leaves her with a code of directions. When Tally ends up at The Smoke, Shay is more than thrilled until she finds out that David, who Shay likes, starts to like Tally. When Special Circumstances captures The Smokies they have to give Shay the first operation because she was the most aggressive one. The operation changes her in numerous ways.
David, the son of the people who established The Smoke. He does not think like anyone from the city since he was born and raised in The Smoke. Unlike people from the city, he see's beauty in all things. "What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful." He falls in love with Tally since the first day she arrives at The Smoke and he tells her the true secrets about her city. He goes to rescue The Smokies with Tally after Special Circumstances has captured them. He finds out Special Circumstances has killed his father and then, before Tally turns herself in, she tells him that she was originally a spy. He is furious, walks away and doesn't come back until after Tally has turned herself in.
Themes and "Big Ideas":
I think the theme and "big idea" in Uglies is that beauty is only skin-deep. Beauty is who you are as a person, not what you look like. In a lot of ways, Uglies society and government is similar to our modern world. We put on makeup, color our hair, get spray tans, piercings, and several other things to look as pretty as someone else and we think that it is perfectly normal. In Uglies, they get plastic surgery to make themselves as pretty as everyone else and they think it is perfectly normal. In a way, they are both similar. Both societies are obsessed with their appearance. “In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.” I think Scott Westerfeld was criticizing the modern world. Tally and the rest of The Smokies learned that there is more to life than to look like everyone else. They learned that there is a reason why we are all born different. David knew that because he hadn't grown up in the city. “Your personality - the real you inside - was the price of beauty.” Tally and everyone else were brainwashed to believe that there is only one way to look and think and only a few people rebelled against that. Tally's society and government turned out that way because people are constantly comparing themselves to everyone they see. People are bullied because they look different than other people. People get diseases, like anorexia, because they want to look as good as someone else. Inner beauty will foreshadow the physical appearance.
Major Conflicts:
The major conflicts in Uglies is when Special Circumstances came to capture all of The Smokies. Tally had slept through breakfast and was still asleep when they came. She woke up and ran outside without shoes to find a lot of Specials walking around, gathering around building to block The Smokies from leaving. Tally ran and hid and found the boss sitting next to her. They needed to get away from The Smoke because sooner or later they would get caught. They was a Special nearby that would see them if they ran. They decided that one person would stay and throw a kind of powder into the Special's eyes and the other person would run. Tally had to be the one to throw the powder into the Special's eyes because she couldn't run because she didn't have shoes. Tally went up to the special and took out the powder and threw it at the Special while the boss ran into the forest. The Special screamed and Tally went and hid in a different spot. Another Special saw what happened and came running over. The Special heard Tally cough and he handcuffed her and took her to where they were keeping prisoners. After a little while, one of the Special's came up to Tally and took her to the head person of Special Circumstances, Dr. Cable. Dr. Cable thought that Tally was still on their side and so she told Tally to go and get her things and they would take her back to the city and she would be operated on. While Tally went with another Special to get her stuff, she tricked the Special and hopped onto a hover board and rode as fast as she could into a cave where she found David hiding too.
Symbolic Image:
I chose this picture of my eye that I took and edited because I think it symbolizes Uglies and how they are sent to hospitals so that doctors can edit them into something completely fake. Tally and the other Smokies didn’t want to be played with and edited by the doctors. That is one reason why they rebelled against their city. In some ways, the government that was created in Uglies was a good thing because it stopped things like anorexia, bulimia, bullying, etc., but we were not all created to be edited into something completely different. We were all created to be original and that is exactly what Tally and the other Smokies believed.
Vocabulary:
Malevolence – wanting to hurt others; evil. “In the valley below, the orchids glowed with pale malevolence in the moonlight, a frozen sea against the dark shore of the forest.”
Infiltrator – to enter something gradually. “She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly.”
Cacophony – harsh sound. “But the cacophony organized itself into a throbbing rhythm.”
Trundled – wheels or rollers. “A minute later, when the machine had trundled half a block further.”
Slalom – zigzag course. “Now Tally was rushing toward the slalom flags, crouching as she drew closer.”
Existing Works:
Art has many similarities to Uglies. In art, you don’t just need to have a creative mind, you also need to have to ability to make things. In Uglies, doctors have to think of how to create every person so beautiful in a different way. Also, in Uglies the doctors need to have the ability to perform plastic surgery on every person. The doctor’s aren’t the only ones who have a lot similarity to art, Pretties do too. Fashion, in my opinion, is another form of art. When you become a Pretty, you want to think of new “bubbly” (that’s the word they use in New Pretty Town ) ideas. Pretties constantly are trying to think of new jewels, piercings, tattoos, etc. to impress the other Pretties. Not only that, Pretties party every night. There is a new theme for every party and Pretties have to think of a “bubbly” costume that will impress all the other Pretties or you won’t be able to get into that party. In The Smoke, they have to make different types of tools so that they can survive.
Title and the author:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is what I read for this project. I chose this book because when I was looking for a book to read for the project, my sister had suggested that I read Uglies. She told me that she enjoyed it a lot and since my sister and I share similar interests, I thought I would most likely enjoy it too. I read the summary on the back of the book and immediately wanted to pick up the book and start reading. I am not the biggest fan of reading, but unlike other books, I read Uglies very quickly. I did not want to set it down until I was finished read the entire book.
Genre:
Uglies is in the genre of young adult fiction, romance, and science fiction. The genre young adult fiction fits my book well because it is about a girl, Tally, who is fifteen, about to turn sixteen, and is growing up in a futuristic version of America. It shows young adults what it would be like to grow up in a world like to grow up in a world like Tally’s. The genre science fiction fits Uglies well because in Tally’s world because Scott Westerfeld describes how America’s government and society could be like in the future. Also, in Uglies, there is an extreme amount of plastic surgery done to a person once they turn the age of sixteen. The city hospitals and other organizations are constantly trying to find new cures for people when they are being operated on because some people die during the operation. They are also trying to find new ideas to make people more beautiful to modernize their process. The genre romance fits Uglies, also. Tally and David start to fall in love with each other not long after Tally comes to The Smoke. Before, Shay and David were going out. As soon as Tally arrived, David stopped liking Shay and fell for Tally. When David found out that Tally had been a spy when she first came to The Smoke, he was heartbroken.
Summary:
Uglies is about a girl, Tally, who is growing up in a futuristic world of America where their society is based on beauty. In this world, between the ages of twelve and sixteen you are considered Uglies. You live in Uglyville and you are brainwashed into believing that you are ugly, until you turn the age of sixteen and you get plastic surgery and turn into a Pretty. When you become a Pretty, you are moved into a new community called New Pretty Town for the next couple of years. All you do in that community is party. Tally is about to turn sixteen when she meets this girl, Shay. After hanging out for a little while, Tally and Shay find out that their sixteenth birthdays are on the same day. About a week before their birthday, Shay decides to rebel against the city and runaway to stay ugly and live with a secret city, The Smoke, in the wild where everyone stays ugly. Shay tries to pursuade Tally into coming with her, but Tally decides to stay, so Shay leaves directions in a code that only Tally will understand. When Tally's birthday finally comes, instead of getting the plastic surgery, she is sent to Special Circumstances. Special Circumstances is a group of Middle Pretties who make sure everything is under control in the city. They leave Tally with a choice to either go find Shay or she will have to stay ugly her whole life.
Characters:
Tally Youngblood, also known as Squint, begins the story barely rebellious and quite a bit selfish. Her purpose to go to The Smoke, in the beginning, was just so she could turn pretty. She was going to lie and betray a close friend and ruin homes for many people. “The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.” As the story goes on, she becomes very selfless and very rebellious against her city. Living in The Smoke for a few weeks, she finds out the true secrets about her city. They don't just make your face different, they make your brain different too. She decides to stay in The Smoke. "Every day seemed to change the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacular in a completely new way. Nature, at least, didn’t need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.” Special Circumstances somehow finds The Smoke and captures most of The Smokies, the people who lived in The Smoke. Tally and David, Tally's boyfriend, escape Special Circumstances. Later, they go back and rescue as many of The Smokies that they can. Shay, Tally's friend, has already been operated on and is now a Pretty. They find a cure to fix Shay's brain, so it will go back to normal. Shay will not take the pill, so Tally decides to turn herself in and become a Pretty and then one of the Smokies will rescue her and she will take the pill to find out if it works or not.
Shay, also known as Skinny, is very rebellious. "I can't imagine anything worse than required to have fun." She does not want to become Pretty, she thinks she is fine the way she looks now and she does not like the way the government works. “We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.” She runs away a week before her birthday and tries to convince Tally to come with her. When Tally says no, Shay leaves her with a code of directions. When Tally ends up at The Smoke, Shay is more than thrilled until she finds out that David, who Shay likes, starts to like Tally. When Special Circumstances captures The Smokies they have to give Shay the first operation because she was the most aggressive one. The operation changes her in numerous ways.
David, the son of the people who established The Smoke. He does not think like anyone from the city since he was born and raised in The Smoke. Unlike people from the city, he see's beauty in all things. "What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful." He falls in love with Tally since the first day she arrives at The Smoke and he tells her the true secrets about her city. He goes to rescue The Smokies with Tally after Special Circumstances has captured them. He finds out Special Circumstances has killed his father and then, before Tally turns herself in, she tells him that she was originally a spy. He is furious, walks away and doesn't come back until after Tally has turned herself in.
Themes and "Big Ideas":
I think the theme and "big idea" in Uglies is that beauty is only skin-deep. Beauty is who you are as a person, not what you look like. In a lot of ways, Uglies society and government is similar to our modern world. We put on makeup, color our hair, get spray tans, piercings, and several other things to look as pretty as someone else and we think that it is perfectly normal. In Uglies, they get plastic surgery to make themselves as pretty as everyone else and they think it is perfectly normal. In a way, they are both similar. Both societies are obsessed with their appearance. “In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.” I think Scott Westerfeld was criticizing the modern world. Tally and the rest of The Smokies learned that there is more to life than to look like everyone else. They learned that there is a reason why we are all born different. David knew that because he hadn't grown up in the city. “Your personality - the real you inside - was the price of beauty.” Tally and everyone else were brainwashed to believe that there is only one way to look and think and only a few people rebelled against that. Tally's society and government turned out that way because people are constantly comparing themselves to everyone they see. People are bullied because they look different than other people. People get diseases, like anorexia, because they want to look as good as someone else. Inner beauty will foreshadow the physical appearance.
Major Conflicts:
The major conflicts in Uglies is when Special Circumstances came to capture all of The Smokies. Tally had slept through breakfast and was still asleep when they came. She woke up and ran outside without shoes to find a lot of Specials walking around, gathering around building to block The Smokies from leaving. Tally ran and hid and found the boss sitting next to her. They needed to get away from The Smoke because sooner or later they would get caught. They was a Special nearby that would see them if they ran. They decided that one person would stay and throw a kind of powder into the Special's eyes and the other person would run. Tally had to be the one to throw the powder into the Special's eyes because she couldn't run because she didn't have shoes. Tally went up to the special and took out the powder and threw it at the Special while the boss ran into the forest. The Special screamed and Tally went and hid in a different spot. Another Special saw what happened and came running over. The Special heard Tally cough and he handcuffed her and took her to where they were keeping prisoners. After a little while, one of the Special's came up to Tally and took her to the head person of Special Circumstances, Dr. Cable. Dr. Cable thought that Tally was still on their side and so she told Tally to go and get her things and they would take her back to the city and she would be operated on. While Tally went with another Special to get her stuff, she tricked the Special and hopped onto a hover board and rode as fast as she could into a cave where she found David hiding too.
Symbolic Image:
I chose this picture of my eye that I took and edited because I think it symbolizes Uglies and how they are sent to hospitals so that doctors can edit them into something completely fake. Tally and the other Smokies didn’t want to be played with and edited by the doctors. That is one reason why they rebelled against their city. In some ways, the government that was created in Uglies was a good thing because it stopped things like anorexia, bulimia, bullying, etc., but we were not all created to be edited into something completely different. We were all created to be original and that is exactly what Tally and the other Smokies believed.
Vocabulary:
Malevolence – wanting to hurt others; evil. “In the valley below, the orchids glowed with pale malevolence in the moonlight, a frozen sea against the dark shore of the forest.”
Infiltrator – to enter something gradually. “She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly.”
Cacophony – harsh sound. “But the cacophony organized itself into a throbbing rhythm.”
Trundled – wheels or rollers. “A minute later, when the machine had trundled half a block further.”
Slalom – zigzag course. “Now Tally was rushing toward the slalom flags, crouching as she drew closer.”
Existing Works:
Art has many similarities to Uglies. In art, you don’t just need to have a creative mind, you also need to have to ability to make things. In Uglies, doctors have to think of how to create every person so beautiful in a different way. Also, in Uglies the doctors need to have the ability to perform plastic surgery on every person. The doctor’s aren’t the only ones who have a lot similarity to art, Pretties do too. Fashion, in my opinion, is another form of art. When you become a Pretty, you want to think of new “bubbly” (that’s the word they use in New Pretty Town ) ideas. Pretties constantly are trying to think of new jewels, piercings, tattoos, etc. to impress the other Pretties. Not only that, Pretties party every night. There is a new theme for every party and Pretties have to think of a “bubbly” costume that will impress all the other Pretties or you won’t be able to get into that party. In The Smoke, they have to make different types of tools so that they can survive.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24770.Uglies